Google is facing more embarrassing revelations about its tax dealings after its Indian business was accused of misleading the government, violating accounting rules and slapped with a Rs76 crore (£8.7m) fine.
The penalty order, which Google is appealing, relates to the tax year 2008-9 and if upheld will ensure the search giant …

If only...

Any bets

that it's some retarded EU legislation which is preventing them from fixing the loopholes.

If they really want the EU to be a single government body, they need to start looking at treating the EU as a single body with certain taxes (like big business etc) applied throughout the whole of the EU, rather than each country setting it themselves. Oh look, suddenly it's no cheaper to funnel your EU taxes to country X because now got the same tax rate.

chancellor rumoured

by which time all the big players will have been well-briefed in what those tax avoidance plans are about, and they'll be well-prepared to introduce new, totally, legal ways to go round those (minor, after all) obstacles. And, by the time this, or next government starts thinking about bringing in new legislation to curb that, the big players will be well-prepared to go round those (minor, after all) obstacles. And, by the time...

In any case, companies have an obligation to minimize the tax they pay (within the law). If you want a moral issue to be outraged about, how about the systematic extortion of money, with menaces, from an entire population.

In Google's defense

Interest carousels, distribution fees, tax havens, etc,

are merely some of the «innovative» means large corporations employ to avoid paying taxes in the jurisdictions in which they earn their incomes. Here in Europe, the EU may well finally be forced by public outrage to crack down on these practices - but don't bet your pension plan on it : lobbyists are as thick on the ground in Brussels as they are in Washington (hardly surprisingly, as the EU economy is larger than that of the US)....